Kyrgyz police kill suspected Islamist escapee from prison in shootout

BISHKEK, Oct 22 (Reuters) - Kyrgyz police killed a suspected
Islamist militant escapee from prison on Thursday in a shootout
in which a policeman and two civilians also died on the
outskirts of the capital Bishkek, the Interior Ministry said.

The incident followed two similar gunbattles between police
and militants in July, a sign of deteriorating security in the
Central Asian nation that hosts a Russian military air base.

A ministry spokesman said police had killed Altynbek
Itibayev, who had been convicted of murder and faced more
charges, after he barricaded himself inside an apartment on the
top floor of a three-storey building and shot at policemen.

Two civilians were killed by gunshots after stepping out on
the balcony of a next-door apartment, he said, adding that one
policeman was killed in the shootout.

The ministry said earlier on Thursday that Itibayev was
being assisted by two people but the spokesman said they had not
been killed or detained and may have fled.

Itibayev was freed from prison in a 2014 amnesty then
detained again in July after security forces killed six gunmen
in clashes in Bishkek. He was charged with being a member of the
same militant group as the dead gunmen.

Together with eight other detainees and convicts, he escaped
from prison on Oct. 11 when the group killed three prison
guards. Five escapees were detained within hours, while Itibayev
and three others remained on the run.

Police killed two of the other escapees and detained a third
one earlier on Thursday.

Three of the five men detained immediately after escaping
have died in police custody, two of them of heart ailments, the
state agency overseeing prisons and detention centres said. The
third death was under investigation.

Kyrgystan's former Soviet overlord, Russia, operates a
military air base in the Central Asian state, fearing an advance
of militant Islam in the region.

Also closely watching is China, whose restive Xinjiang
region borders Kyrgyzstan and which is present in several Kyrgyz
industries, including energy and mining.
(Reporting by Olga Dzyubenko; Writing by Olzhas Auyezov;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)